10 Art Shows to See in Chicago This Summer

For some working artists, summer in Chicago is a time to get into the (stiflingly hot) studio; others might prefer to participate in an idyllic residency in some charmed lakeside Wisconsin or Michigan town. Blessedly, despite the corn sweat, Chicago’s gallery and museum scene is eager to provide fresh work for the Midwestern mind.

The city’s summertime pride is certainly accompanied by an enthusiasm for the work of local emerging artists, seen in spaces like Prairie and Hans Goodrich. The sweltering heat also brings a simmering interest in local history and political positioning, as is the case at the National Museum of Mexican Art and Logan Center Exhibitions. And on the South Side, the long-awaited Obama Presidential Center has finally been unveiled, bringing over 28 newly commissioned works to the public. Maybe Chicago summers are ultimately the season of attention; a time to notice the city while it’s noticing itself.

Joe Feddersen: Urban Drama

Volume Gallery, 1700 W Hubbard St, Chicago June 13, July 25

Installation view of Joe Feddersen: Urban Drama at Volume Gallery (photo Natalie Jenkins/Hyperallergic)

Combining Indigenous iconography and basketmaking traditions with contemporary scenery, Colville artist Joe Feddersen’s solo show brings a reverence for form within its larger social commentary. Pert linen sally bags, a centuries-old Plateau basket design for gathering roots, are the backbone of the show, adorned with woven linework subjects that reappear in an adjacent wall installation and framed prints. Imagery moves between decidedly modern and timeless, from box trucks to buffalo, coalescing into a sharp observation of the fixtures making up our urban surroundings. Feddersen is also offering a vision of change, as in “Protest Basket No. 2” (2025), which depicts a buzzing crowd of human-animal protestors with empty signs, leaving the viewer to fill in the blank.

Richard Hull: After All, Paintings and Prints

Western Exhibitions, 1709 W Chicago Ave, Chicago June 12, August 15

Richard Hull, “Duet” (2023) (photo Natalie Jenkins/Hyperallergic)

Off the heels of a vivid exhibition of 100 ink drawings of cats at local watering hole Rainbo Club, Richard Hull’s After All, Paintings and Prints is a reminder of the longevity and significance of the Chicago-local artist. Featuring older prints and more recent paintings in a retrospective-adjacent style that some might fear is a career gravestone, the show is actually a celebration of vision. Hull’s ever-evolving ability to see layers, breaks, and movement in seemingly simple subject matter results in a cartoonish expressionism that complicates ways of viewing and opens avenues to pure feeling. “Duet” (2023) pictures two figures of bulging limbs and fleshy parts sitting in quiet company, a delightfully awkward and honest way of showing a deeply human experience.

Nick D’Alessandro: Universal September

Prairie, 2055 W Cermak Ave, Chicago June 20, August 2

Detail view of Nick D’Alessandro, Universal September (photo courtesy the artist)

Nick D’Alessandro’s slender loosely woven textiles flutter softly along the walls of Prairie, surprisingly delicate despite their somewhat grotesque surface treatments. The works, sculptural in their verticality, are fairly consistent across each iteration, due in part to the table loom D’Alessandro uses, which dictates the width of each strip and gestures towards industrial textile production. Each strip of fabric has undergone a process that altered its appearance, from being dyed with cyanotype to being buried outdoors for months. The contrast between commercial production and contamination is sharp, upending the labor-produced commodity through destructive aftercare.

Alice Ding: Basel Social Club

Hans Goodrich, 1747 S Halsted Street and 1843 S Halsted Street, Chicago July 18, August 31

Alice Ding, "Untitled" (2025) (image courtesy the artist)

Prints and polaroids by Chicago-based artist Alice Ding first appear childlike in their self-evident construction and freehand gestural figuration. Perhaps accordingly, like opinions expressed by children, the works are entirely serious and disarmingly earnest. Many grapple with truths of Ding’s experience in the art world and the Global North, as in her untitled print series featuring pages from her sketchbook on a flatbed scanner. Collaged and hand-annotated texts, which read like fables, express some of these truths; for example, that with the same materials and same time, some artists will make better work than the rest.

Beyond the Black Rainbow

Twelve Ten Gallery, 1104 W Thorndale Ave, Chicago June 6, July 25

Installation view of Beyond the Black Rainbow at Twelve Ten Gallery (photo Natalie Jenkins/Hyperallergic)

Up-and-coming Twelve Ten Gallery’s tight group show is an offering on the altar of lifemaxxing. It takes its name from the 2010 film Beyond the Black Rainbow by Panos Cosmatos, about a research center that aims to create perpetual happiness through technological development. The works question all of the obsessive interests that consume us on our endless road to self-optimization. As much is clear in the double-edged message of “immaterial girl” (2026), a glimmering triptych by Nico Ramirez Rosas reading “i will wear myself out / i could kill with the power in my mind / every day is a blessing.” In the reflective iridescent finish of an untitled ceramic E.T. installed by Laveen Gammie in the gallery bathroom, visitors can consider voyeurism, entertainment, and respect as they preen.

Danny Bredar: Demand and Supply

Met him pike hoses, 1500 S Western Ave, Chicago August 1, September 26

Danny Bredar, detail of "This Full Void," section 44 of The Webs of Doubt: Vinculum- and Verfallen-Codes for Anomalies (2014-ongoing) (image courtesy the artist)

Given the nebulous nature of Chicago-based meta artist Danny Bredar’s practice, Demand and Supply is sure to provoke endless interpretations and personal experiences. Much of the work is textual, drawing on a literary sequence the artist began over a decade ago, presented as an archive that invites intimate interaction with visitors who can rifle through texts and linger in a red Djinn chair, a design that film enthusiasts might recognize from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Peixuan Ouyang: nánwàng de yī tiān

SHANGHAI SEMINARY, 3262 S Morgan Street, Chicago June 12, August 1

Peixuan Ouyang, “Domestic Affairs” (2026) (photo Natalie Jenkins/Hyperallergic)

Peixuan Ouyang’s solo show offers a sedate moment to consider how historical narratives are constructed and reconstructed over time. “The Other Half of the Quilt” (2025, 26), a large two-channel video installation, lulls viewers into quiet contemplation, pairing artist-led interviews with residents of Shazhou and contextualizing footage of their surroundings with unusual choreographies that freeze the same interview subjects around town. The installation draws on the popular “Half a Quilt” story, in which Red Army soldiers shared their only quilt with a poor Shazhou villager during the Long March, a tale later elevated as a symbol of the bond between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people.

Xochicago: Floating Gardens of the Chicago River and México

National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W 19th St, Chicago May 9, October 4

Installation view of Xochicago: Floating Gardens of the Chicago River and México at the National Museum of Mexican Art (photo Natalie Jenkins/Hyperallergic)

As demonstrated in this exhibition, the waterway systems of Chicago and Mexico City share more than might first appear. Divided into halves by location and arranged chronologically, the show is more didactic than is typical, relaying the historical and ecological changes that have shaped the Chicago River and Xochimilco. Historic photographs and illustrations, such as an undated Mariano Miguel print depicting a “niña de las flores” (Xochimilco translates to “place of flower fields” in Nahuatl), are interwoven with contemporary works, like “Xochimilco Special Project” (2025), a vibrant audio piece by local youth arts powerhouse Yollocalli Arts Reach.

Longer Than the Sky: Art of the Obama Years

Logan Center Exhibitions, 915 E 60th Street, Chicago July 10, October 11

Pope.L, "Gray People Gas Flick" (2014) (© the Estate of Pope.L)

Longer Than the Sky situates artists working during Barack Obama's presidency within a new art-historical canon that is particularly adept at observing its own social conditions. Its positioning in the University of Chicago gallery, a space primarily used by students, is also important; many artists with works in significant collections (like the newly opened Obama Center) are or were teachers themselves. And, like the connection between professor and student or institution and community, the relationship between art and cultural context is complex. Big names including Kevin Beasley, Pope.L, and Danh Vo will populate the show, positioning their work as both an object and product of study, looking inwards and outwards at their historical moment.

Kenzi Shiokava

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago June 27, January 31

Kenzi Shiokava, "Untitled" (n.d.) (photo Taka Nonaka-Hill, courtesy the Estate of Kenzi Shiokava and Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles & Kyoto)

The MCA Chicago will be the first to host a solo museum show of the late Los Angeles sculptor Kenzi Shiokava. In addition to the artist’s well-known columnar wooden figures (of which there are plenty on display), Shiokava’s self-contained diorama works offer a glimpse into an opposing side of his practice. Where the freestanding totems are constructive, forming new identities out of their component parts, the box sculptures compartmentalize their found objects, prescribing order and distance to their arrangement. Together with archival context of Shiokava’s life and work, the exhibition is an important step towards cementing the artist’s legacy amongst significant California assemblage artists.